[People for Community Recovery rally #1]

A rally by the People for Community Recovery, an environmental activist organization based in the Altgeld Gardens community, in August of 1991. Notable speakers are Hazel Johnson, the founder of PCR, Father Michael Pfleger, activist Walter "Slim" Coleman, and former Mayor of Chicago Eugene Sawyer.

0:00Copy video clip URL Open on the videographer talking with a man with an unreadable name tag, Reverend Young, and another unknown man about the installation of an incinerator and the adverse health effects on the community.

3:20Copy video clip URL Switch to shot of an elevated platform with a pulpit and a man saying a Christian blessing over the gathering. They are in front of the Altgeld Gardens Administration Building.

4:51Copy video clip URL Cut to a woman at the pulpit introducing a singer who will be singing the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice.”

7:12Copy video clip URL Cut to another woman at the pulpit who is Hazel Johnson, the founder of PCR. She says that she is supposed to be giving the history of PCR. Several different accomplishments in Altgeld and the surrounding areas are illustrated. A man interrupts her a few minutes in and he is escorted away.

12:43Copy video clip URL The announcer returns to the stage and talks to the crowd for a bit before giving an honorable mention to former Mayor Sawyer who briefly takes the stage and gives a few words.

16:54Copy video clip URL Cut to Father Michael Pfleger speaking at the pulpit. He talks about the drug conspiracy and how more whites use drugs than hispanics and blacks but there are more blacks and hispanics in jail. He frequently talks about the “three-piece suits” and how they supply the drugs and make so much money off the poor kids peddling their drugs and going to jail. He talks about the need for a change in thinking and providing solutions to the drug and education programs. “Everybody’s waiting on a grant, to hell with the grant! Why should someone else pay us to take care of our children?!” Quite some time is spent on the need to unite and take the power. He criticizes the Church and then talks about why they have to go back to the streets with the churches. He is quite loud and animated. Pfleger continues talking about the necessity of taking care of the next generation. He tells the children, “be your own role models and don’t let anything stand in your way. You can be anything you want but you have to be willing to fight for it, to struggle for it.”

33:15Copy video clip URL Another man takes the podium after Fr. Pfleger and talks about the mayoral proposal to establish a third airport in Chicago. He talks about the homes, jobs, and wetlands that would be lost if the airport was founded.

40:24Copy video clip URL A woman takes the stand and calls Marianne Burns to the podium. She is the chairwoman of the 35th district’s environmental task force and talks about how she’s worked for the area in the past and asks people to volunteer, to be heard.

44:38Copy video clip URL Subsequently Walter “Slim” Coleman, editor of “All-Chicago City News,” takes the stage and speaks against the airport and on other environmental issues.

52:29Copy video clip URL The announcer returns to the podium and the videographer tapes other parts of the rally including the volunteer table.

56:42Copy video clip URL Hazel Johnson returns to the pulpit and talks until the end of the video about Section 8 housing vouchers.

58:01Copy video clip URL Video ends.

 

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